ACL Tear Greater Ballwin, MO. ACL tears have an enormous effect on your active and daily routine. One second you’re sprinting down the court, playing your favorite sport or playing with your children, and the next second you’re don’t know if you’ll get to play or even go to work again. At Axes Physical Therapy in Ballwin, MO, we have dedicated our practice to restoring our patients’ mobility and returning them to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work in concert with you as a team and develop personalized, empirically-backed treatment plans. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in Ballwin, MO, contact us online or check out the most convenient Axes location for you. Our mission is getting every patient positive results and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means dominating your local Ballwin, MO pickleball league, or carrying your children on your shoulders without any pain.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament | Ballwin, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of durable, flexible fibrous tissue that attach two bones. The ligaments in the knee help maintain stability in your knee by affixing your tibia (shinbone) to your femur (thigh bone). The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, runs down the center of your knee and forms an “X” with the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). The ACL and PCL work in tandem to stabilize the front and back movement of your knee, and the ACL shields the tibia from slipping too far forward on the femur and provides stability when the joint rotates.

Most ACL tears are partial, but they can be completely torn as well. Depending on the grade of your ACL tear, your ability to put weight on your knee and your motion will be affected. However significant your injury, trust in the Ballwin, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you fully heal.

Causes of an ACL Tear | Ballwin, MO Physical Therapy

There are as many as 250,000 ACL injuries nationwide annually, and it is one of the most common knee injuries and sports injuries. They are common in contact sports that call for frequent and fast cutting and switching directions, such as football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. According to data from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the vast majority of ACL tears happen in non-contact injuries, such as changing direction quickly, and the rest are due to direct blunt force trauma. External and internal factors could both be at play when you sustain an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your motion is obstructed immediately before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven ground or landing with improper form
• Something or someone knocking into you
• A sudden reduction in speed or switching direction
• Pivoting with a firmly planted foot
• Receiving a direct hit to the knee

Internal Factors

These have to do with the structure and anatomy of the knee and legs. Some examples are:

• The differences in anatomy between men and women
• How flexible the hamstring and other surrounding muscles are
• Genetic differences

ACL tears don’t just transpire in sports, falls and work-related injuries can damage they ACL as well. They can become more common as we age and our bodies weaken. Women are 4-6 times more likely to sustain an ACL tear, likely as a result of anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | Ballwin, MO Physical Therapy

Following an ACL tear, you’ll likely feel pain in the middle of the knee. You might not necessarily feel sever pain after an ACL tear except if other parts of the knee were also injured. Some signals that you might have suffered an ACL tear include:

• Feeling or hearing a pop in your knee
• Not being able to continue activity
• Rapid swelling
• Loss of range of motion
• Instability when putting weight on your knee

If you think you’ve suffered an ACL tear, it’s critical to see a doctor or a licensed physical therapist in Ballwin, MO to confirm your injury and get you the treatment you need. We offer no-cost, no strings attached injury screenings and have a wide network of excellent doctors in Ballwin, MO that we can refer you to. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist is a fundamental part of your recovery team, working closely with you and your doctors and medical providers to collaborate on your safe and efficient recovery.

How to Treat an ACL Tear | Ballwin, MO Physical Therapy

It is essential to get prompt, effective, personalized treatment for your ACL tear. If your injury does not heal don’t, it can result in problems such as obesity or osteoarthritis, which can greatly affect how you live your life.

Directly following your ACL tear, you should use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to alleviate pain and inflammation. In an examination, a doctor will evaluate your mobility, and likely order an MRI to confirm the ACL tear and judge the severity of the injury.

As there is no blood flow to the ligament, a complete ACL tear cannot regenerate on its own. This means that you will need the help of licensed professional physical therapists in order to get back to the activities you love. Surgery is the only means available to completely heal an ACL tear. So, surgery is often necessary for younger people, athletes who need a fully functioning ACL in order to play, patients with other serious injury to their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes their knee to buckle in basic, everyday activities. In an ACL surgery, a surgeon will remove the torn ACL, take a graft from another one of your or a donors tendons, and use small incisions to attach it to the bones.

Once the new ligament is attached, you still have a long way to go before you’ll feel fully back to normal. After surgery, you’ll likely need crutches to move around, as your quadriceps muscles will have weakened. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in Ballwin, MO to get you the best results for both your physical rehabilitation and your surgery. Our ACL tear physical therapy professionals will be by your side throughout your recovery process with a personalized treatment plan that has been proven to work. Our treatment methods will help to:

• Alleviate pain and swelling
• Provide patient education so you understand your injury and why our methods work
• Gradually and effectively get you back to bearing weight
• Fit you for a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Perform movement exercises and balance exercises to increase mobility
• Perform strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Potentially employ electrical stimulation to return strength and flexibility

When you work with the knowledgeable Ballwin, MO area physical therapists of Axes and take an active role in your rehabilitation, you have the best chance of a complete and quick recovery. Before you know it, we will get you back to tearing up the local softball league, or just enjoying the ability to climb stairs without any pain.

How to Prevent an ACL Tear | Ballwin, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, many people suffer a second ACL tear and they can have life-long consequences. As part of our ACL tear physical therapy services in Ballwin, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will educate you on how to avoid another ACL tear later on. Some of the preventive methods you can take in order to prevent further injury are:

• Strengthen your core
• Strengthen your hip and leg muscles
• Practice proper technique, for instance landing evenly on both feet
• Maintain flexibility
• Increase your balance
• Always warm up before sports or other physical activities
• Make sure you are using appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists dedicate themselves not only to retuning you to the things you love to do, but doing everything possible to make sure that you can carry on doing them without being disrupted by another injury.

Some of the other services we offer in Ballwin, MO are:

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

ACL Tear in Ballwin, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to be nervous about your what your life will look like in the future after suffering a severe injury. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, you might be impatient to return to your active lifestyle and physical activities you value. Trust in the experienced professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work in concert with you to implement a proven, personalized rehabilitation plan to return you to the basketball court, bowling alley, or just back to your normal, pain-free daily activities. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.